Western Sydney Wanderers announce Josep Gombau as full-time coach

New role: Josep Gombau has been named the new Western Sydney Wanderers coach for the next three seasons, returning to the A-League for the first time since he managed Adelaide United in 2015. Picture: AAP Image/David Moir

A new era will start at the Western Sydney Wanderers with Josep Gombau announced as just the second full-time coach in the club’s history.

The club announced Ange Postecoglou’s assistant had signed a three-year contract on Wednesday morning.

He will take over from Hayden Foxe, who has been the caretaker coach of the club since Tony Popovic departed on the eve of the 2017-18 A-League season.

The former Australian under-23s mentor said it was great to be part of the Wanderers family.

“For me, this is an amazing opportunity at one of the best clubs – for me, the best club - in Australia,” Gombau said.

Gombau was the Adelaide United coach between 2013-15 and won the inaugural FFA Cup with the side.

He joins the club from the Australian side, where he was the under-23s head coach and a Socceroos assistant under Ange Postecoglou.

With extensive experience in Australia and across the world, Gombau is eager to put his stamp on the Wanderers.

“Every coach has their own method and I think my method is very clear – to play attacking football,” he said.

“What the club has achieved in the last five years in amazing but now we start a new era.

“For me, the football that I like is when you score a lot of goals and make it so the people who come to the stadium enjoy it, and make it so people want to come back because they like the football that this club is playing.”

Gombau said he would implement his new structures as early as next week, following the Wanderers’ match against the Melbourne Victory on Monday night.

While he admitted it wouldn’t be an easy change for the side, Gombau praised the squad the Wanderers have assembled.

“This is the first step to put the philosophy in, it is a process that will not be easy but we will do,” he said.

“We have the players that will be able to do it perfectly, we have a very good squad.”

The Wanderers have been searching for a new coach since the beginning of the A-League season with more than 200 applications reportedly received by the club.